A new take on chicken tenders and fries

A few weeks ago I filled out a form on Tropical Traditions website to be considered to review their coconut oil. Not thinking that me and my little blog would get picked but I did! Yesterday I received my Coconut Oil in the mail and instantly began to think “what should I make first?”, “should I use one of their recipes or try and create my own?”, “what does it smell like?”, “will it have a strong coconut flavor?”. Needless to say my brain was on 20 question mode, but I had a photo assignment last night and couldn’t experiment right away, so I did it tonight. I was nervous and excited to experiment and swore that if my first try came out bad I wouldn’t blog about it. Thankfully it came out pretty tasty!

I’ve read so many great things about coconut oil, both for cooking/baking but also the health benefits of it. Below are a few interesting facts that I have found in my research:

Coconut oil is very heat stable so it makes an excellent cooking and frying oil. It has a smoke point of about 360°F (180°C)

The oil is also used to give movie theater popcorn in the United States its distinctive flavor

Made from fresh coconuts, not dried copra

Has a fresh coconut fragrance

Apart from coconut oil, the only other source of lauric acid found in such high concentrations is in mother’s milk

I had been curious about coconut oil for a while now and been wanting to try it out for myself so I am very thankful to Tropical Traditions for sending me this amazing sample to experiment with and write about.

So back to my 20 questions:

“what should I make first?” – I decided to try and make a play on chicken nuggets and fries. Instead I made coconut flour dusted chicken tenders and sweet potato fries. They were fried in a little bit of coconut oil (recipe below). It was very very tasty. The chicken came out fantastic!! So juicy and tender with a hint of coconut flavor (just a hint). The fries came out great too, however I think I prefer my fries baked instead of fried.

“should I use one of their recipes or try and create my own?” – I went with making my own recipe this time, but Tropical Traditions has tons of great looking recipes that I look forward to trying!

“what does it smell like?”- It definitely smells like coconut but in a good way (not like suntan lotion).

“will it have a strong coconut flavor?” – A slight coconut flavor is there but its not over powering or anything like that. I rather enjoyed it.

In a medium bowl mix the coconut flour, tapioca flour, salt and pepper until combined. Dredge the sweet potato fries in the flour and shake of any excess flour before adding to the oil. One the fries are finished cooking cool them on a wire rack. Lightly sprinkle with salt (if you desire). Next, add the chicken to the same flour mixture, coat lightly and shake of any excess flour before adding to the oil. Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side until fully cooked. I dipped my chicken in a little bit of honey….oooh so good!!

Seeing as I was given this very generous sample to try I have decided that for the next month before packing everything up to ship across the country I will make one coconut oil recipe a week, so please stay tuned for more recipes and reviews. Now…what to make next, hmmmmm Maybe I’ll try baking something next.

Please check out this video from Tropical Traditions about their Coconut Oil: